Despite threats to send those arriving in the UK illegally to Rwanda, the Home Office revealed that more than three-quarters (76%) of asylum seekers had their applications for asylum, leave or humanitarian protection approved in the year ending June of 2022. This was the highest grant rate since 1990, while the government’s backlog of asylum applications reached 118,000. The figures also show that 2,165 Albanians were recorded as arriving in the UK on small boats between January and June 2022, compared to just 23 detected in the same period the previous year. It comes after the Home Office said Albanian police could be moved to the UK to observe migrant arrivals and pass on information in a bid to tackle Channel crossings. “The number of Albanians arriving in small boats has increased significantly in the last quarter. Prior to this point, Albanians were not commonly detected in small vessels,” the findings said. In the first half of this year, more than half (51%) of small boat arrivals were from three nationalities – Albanian (18%), Afghan (18%) and Iranian (15%). An agreement struck between Home Secretary Priti Patel and the Albanian government could see officers on the Kent coast to be present when migrants are processed and help British authorities with information, officials said. It is not yet confirmed when this might happen. According to the Home Office, Albania is a “safe and prosperous country” and many nationals “travel to many countries to travel to the UK” before making “false asylum claims on arrival”. But Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said it would be wrong to pre-judge the cases and that the majority of asylum applications from Albanian nationals were accepted in the UK. “We know firsthand from extensive work with Albanian refugees that many have been trafficked and are victims of criminal and sexual exploitation. Just because a country isn’t at war doesn’t mean it’s safe for everyone who lives there. “To prejudge an asylum claim based on preconceptions about the applicant’s country of origin is completely wrong and undermines the asylum determination process which seeks to ensure the opposite – that claims are assessed on their individual merit,” he said. Fewer than 1,000 Albanian offenders have been deported from the UK since the relocation deal was signed last year. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The number of people using “safe and legal routes” to come to the UK far outnumber asylum seekers, statistics show. In addition to the 105,000 visa recipients from the Ukraine scheme, another 18,600 holders of British (overseas) citizenship status and their family members from Hong Kong have been granted visas to live and work in the UK. Just 6,910 people who arrived by small boat had an initial asylum decision as of 2018. Of those, 8% were rejected. Almost half, 49%, were accepted. Commenting on the statistics, Illegal Immigration Secretary Simon Baines said: “The significant increase in people making dangerous crossings in small boats continues to put pressure on the UK’s asylum system and our ability to make timely decisions. “Anyone traveling through safe countries to get to the UK should claim asylum there instead of giving money to bad criminal gangs. “Our new immigration plan, including our migration and economic development partnership with Rwanda, will fix the broken system, crack down on those who enter illegally and allow us to support those in real need.”
